posted on April 27, 2010 08:22:39 AM new
The following is an interesting excerpt from a e-commerce blog I follow:
".....Another area that small business owners should pay attention to is Facebook Credits.
Though currently Facebook's virtual currency platform is designed for game developers to sell virtual goods, the social network announced expansions and their plans may eventually include a payment platform for the sale of real goods.
If the speculation about an eventual social commerce system turns out to be true, Facebook could represent a major platform for the sale of physical goods, with the ability to target sales to a local audience, which is something small business owners should play close attention to."
[ edited by pandorasbox on Apr 27, 2010 08:23 AM ]
posted on April 27, 2010 09:09:23 AM new
I am still trying to figure out how to best use Facebook - I have set up a page under my personal id (I tried a separate store ID but I don't think that worked very well). My FB posts are set up to "Tweet" on Twitter automatically.
Here is a link to my FB fan page - please Fan me and post a link to your pages so we can all "Fan" you.
posted on April 27, 2010 12:13:32 PM new
Hi Michael,
I saw that, too, and I'm a little skeptical. Not that long ago all the big retailers were going to become eBay-like marketplaces. GoDaddy started one. As far as I know those haven't taken off.
I think it's very hard to graft eCommerce onto social. MySpace and Facebook ads don't convert well for etailers.
posted on April 28, 2010 11:13:54 PM new
Hi fLufF;
I was very leery of FB as a retail venue until I witnessed its incredible power to network and reasonably maintain integrity within networks that essentially self-police.
Setting up a page for your retail business and then employing a simple inventory upload like ShopTab (which uses the Google Merchant Feed) puts your business fat in the middle of an enormously powerful network.
The ShopTab feed pulls your pictures and info just as it appears on Google Product Feeds and links back to your web site...all for $10 per month.
eBay is history... rearranging the deck chairs is what its all about from here out. The future of the company is PayPal and every move from here on out will only serve to bolster PP.
Pitching Machine Pro
"One Great Hit Deserves Another"
www.pitchingmachinepro.com
[ edited by pandorasbox on Apr 29, 2010 07:08 AM ]
posted on April 30, 2010 07:21:25 AM new
Big difference, though, Steve.
People are on eBay to browse and buy. People are on Facebook to do social stuff.
I advertised on Facebook for a month and made zero sales from it. Traffic doesn't mean much unless it's targeted traffic. Michael is always on the bleeding edge so I respect his opinion enormously but I'm more the wait-and-see type when it comes to social sites.
posted on April 30, 2010 08:58:09 AM new
i think the key to facebook and twitter is that it helps create buzz.
your best bet is have your own website, and use facebook and twitter to socially market your wares.
the key to these sites is to network. just as you want people to follow or friend you, you need to do the same.
everytime i jump onto my business twitter page and follow another user, i get 3-5 more followers myself. whether it translates to an increase in sales is a whole other bag... but it is about marketing and it is free!
posted on April 30, 2010 09:57:39 AM new
Shag, the marketing standard for eCommerce is:
"Does it bring me conversions?"
A conversion is a sale but other things can be conversions, too, like signing up for your newsletter. (You *are* gathering email addresses in your store and sending out newsletters, right?)
If you have an Amazon-like rating system on your site, a rating is a conversion.
Basically any desired action successfully completed by a visitor is a conversion.
Evaluate all marketing channels by that standard and you're zeroing in on success, while eliminating timewasters like Twitter, the 101 non-eBay auction sites, Bonanzle, etc.
posted on April 30, 2010 10:12:52 AM new
Interesting post... I could definitely see potential marketing possibilities through Facebook... but do think you're best off integrating it with an existing website. One way I've tried to address social media on my site is by utilizing a "ShareThis" button:
Same exact system used by major companies (CNN, Fox News, LA Times, etc...)... and it's completely free. While it doesn't directly market your content to any of the social media sites... if a member of any of those sites likes your content and wants to share it with their contacts... it's a really easy process for them.
And as far as conversions goes... Fluff's definitely dead on... whatever marketing channel's you're using... you should make sure you're getting some sort of benefit from it. And, as Fluff mentioned... it doesn't have to be just sales. If you're running a successful Banner Ad campaign on your site... just increasing traffic to your site is likely to bring in extra revenue.
******************************
posted on April 30, 2010 11:59:09 AM new
First principles...what is the problem with/for eBay?...or any web site apart from the goods offered and price?
Trust.
Given a constant of equal price and representation, the site that best confers trust, reliability will win the sale.
You can't over estimate trust as the driving force on the web....it is the foundation of Google's fundamental link philosophy: in essence, who do you trust? And more to the point is the fact that trust can be conveyed as an attribute: e.g. this site is trustworthy and points to that web site, therefore that web site is trustworthy or relevant.
Relevance and trust became interchangeable as the net work grew larger and coincided with the rise of so-called social sites like FB.
FB is no more than a refinement of trust by giving trust , in as far as possible, a face.
eBay fails because the rating system and the site as a whole is simply too large an amalgam of strangers. Trust as it turns out is not infinitely elastic.
Trust on FB is compartmentalized in terms of neighborhoods of familiarity of the very sort that is statutorily prohibited on eBay.
Trust on eBay flowed from Pierre's assumption that all folks are fundamentally honest....which as it turns out does not scale up all that well. eBay's trust relies too much on anonymity which is counter intuitive to trust.
What eBay became was largely unintentional. And this is what I look for in on-line evolution; unintended good results.
FB was an outgrowth of a real human need for connectivity & identity even in the face of something like the web which many would have you believe was the triumph of the anonymous.
That FB would now find itself as a potential linchpin of e-commerce is an unintended consequence and thus one that, to my mind, bears watching.
Pitching Machine Pro
"One Great Hit Deserves Another"
www.pitchingmachinepro.com
posted on April 30, 2010 03:44:11 PM new
Of course, Fluffy. I was just pointing out how fast facebook is growing, compared to ebay. Facebooks' daily reach is now 16 times that of ebay. ebay still hasn't tried to tap into social marketing, in fact ebay has moved away from such strategies (hidden ID's, etc).
posted on May 2, 2010 08:10:35 AM newFacebooks' daily reach is now 16 times that of ebay.
Yep. You could say Facebook is the China of the Internet.
There's an old fallacy called Chinese marketing and it goes like this:
"There are a billion people in China, and if we could get just 1% of them..."
It's seductive thinking but it only works when you ignore the barriers to entering that market.
I submit for the typical small business there are still significant barriers to marketing on Facebook. If you're General Mills or Apple or Nike, sure, you've probably got fans and brand cheerleaders plastering content all over your wall. But Steve's StampCo? Michael's Miniature Toy Soldiers? MaryAnn's Gift Baskets? These stores certainly have customers that use Facebook but it doesn't mean those customers (unless powerfully motivated) will seek them out *on* Facebook.
posted on May 3, 2010 07:08:13 AM new
It ain't the size...its the quality of the connection. Folks visiting my web site click on my FB link and "register" by simply pressing the "Like" button.
Doing so immediately identifies each of us to one another in a far more intimate and friendly fashion than any comparable e-mail or newsletter subscription.
My FB page serves as a marketing platform where I can offer my contacts/friends specific offers and information such as hitting tips and routines that are linked back to information pages I build on my site. Meanwhile, by "Liking" my FB page, their entire network of friends is aware of our interactions.
This doesn't begin to cover it but I find FB a far more efficient and potentially effective marketing program because even though it is built upon the large numbers of FB, it corresponds to the intimate numbers of community.
Pitching Machine Pro
"One Great Hit Deserves Another"
www.pitchingmachinepro.com
